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Page last updated at 18:51 GMT, Monday, 8 February 2010

Swansea's bells of Santiago to return to Chile

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On the 8 December 1863 nearly 3,000 people died in one of the worst fire tragedies in human history.

The Cathedral of Santiago in Chile was gutted and it was decided to send the bells by boat to Swansea to be smelted down to their composite copper. However a local business man rescued the bells and presented them to All Saints Church in Swansea.

The bells of Santiago, which have been in the church in Mumbles for 140 years, have not chimed for nearly 50 years after structural problems with the bell tower meant they had to be taken down.

The bells may get a chance to chime again though, as the local parish has provisionally agreed to return the bells to Chile in time for the 150th anniversary of the disaster.

Canon Keith Evans, vicar of Oystermouth parish, explains a little bit of the history of the bells.

READ MORE: Church bells may return to Chile

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